Members of New Hampshire Electric Cooperative (NHEC) will soon be paying less for electricity. Effective on all bills rendered on or after May 1, the typical residential member using 500 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per month will see an overall bill decrease of 20.3%. Residential members using 1,000 kWh per month will see an overall decrease of 23.1%.

The May 1 rate change is the result of a 44% decrease in the Co-op Power rate, from 11.6 cents per kWh to 6.5 cents per kWh. A small increase in the Regional Access Charge portion of members’ bills, also effective on all bills rendered on or after May 1, will result in a total bill decrease of $23.67 per month for the typical residential member using 500 kWh per month. The decrease for the typical residential member using 1,000 kWh per month amounts to $47.33 per month.

The rate reductions were approved on March 31 by the NHEC Board of Directors and signal an end to a winter period that saw residential bills increase by 12.2% in October 2014. Driving these wide price swings are seasonal variations in the price of natural gas, which is used to generate approximately half of the electricity produced in New England.

Over the past two years, electric rates during the six-month summer period have been substantially lower than in the wintertime, when constraints in the region’s natural gas pipeline infrastructure have led to price spikes. Natural gas demand increases sharply during the winter months due to its use as a primary heating fuel, which drives up the cost of electricity for winter delivery.

NHEC is a member-owned electric distribution cooperative serving 83,000 members in 115 New Hampshire communities.